I bought a couple boxes of new-old stock 125gr NPs on Gunbroker since I couldn’t find any anywhere else. Unlike the NPs I am familiar with, these do not have a uniform copper jacket, but rather have a noticeable transition from the upper half’s jacket to the partition and then to the lower half’s jacket. It almost looks like the ring/partition area does not have a jacket and is a couple hundredths of an inch smaller in diameter. Does anyone know about a design change in NPs at any point in the past? Thanks.

Two hundredths smaller? Check that again.
However, early NPs had pressure problems because they had hard jackets, so they made the front part smaller, but by a factor of bore vs groove diameter. IE; a 30 cal bullet would be .300 at the front and .308 at the back.
Four thousandths.
Later they machined a groove over the solid middle part. Now they know how to make jackets that don't raise pressures.
Not anything to worry about.

The old Nosler were turned on a spindle Im told and so they appear..They were a good bullet in there day and alway blew the front half off in game..The new Nosler tend to mushroom quite well and when the do blow the fron lead out, you still have a mushroom looking jacket and look much like a Barnes X or any other monolithic...Id hunt with any Nosler..and have....As I recall the older Noslers were lathe turned and the portion in front of the partition was smaller than the rear part??

A couple thousandths probably not hundredths - I didn't measure just swagging, but visibly smaller in diameter. Here is a pic of one of the bullets and the box to show relative age of it compared to today's packaging.

Those are the "type two" noslers with the machined band in the middle, over the solid midsection. Those were made on a lathe.
Shoot them.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Those are the "type two" noslers with the machined band in the middle, over the solid midsection. Those were made on a lathe.
Shoot them.

Thanks for the info - that makes sense. Now I just need to find some powder appropriate for 6.5x55. All I have on hand right now is BigGame, Re-15 and H335. I wish I could find some Re-19 or 22.

I've shot a bunch of those original Nosler's with the lathe-turned jackets. Great results, and although some people reported accuracy problems with them I found them among the most accurate in my rifles, mostly a .264 Win using 140's.

Regarding powders, I've never used Big Game, but its burning rate would seem to make it, if not optimal, at least a usable choice in a 6.5x55 using 125 gr bullets.

I'm an old guy that likes old thing that work well. I have used the old Noslers made of brass tubing and the machined relief belt. They may not be the most accurate, but have not failed me on game, both big and small.

I buy the old Noslers when found at gun shows in all calibers from .243 to .375. I believe that Nosler discontinued the old bullet due to the significantly increased production cost over the current method. I used the .375 Nosler to cull Asian buffalo in Australia on three different hunts and took over 60 buff using the 270 and 300 grain bullets. The terminal performance was most impressive allowing for my less than perfect shot placement. Those bullets you have are precious and should be used on game and not on paper.

Geoff

quote:

Originally posted by geoff:
I'm an old guy that likes old thing that work well. I have used the old Noslers made of brass tubing and the machined relief belt. They may not be the most accurate, but have not failed me on game, both big and small.

I buy the old Noslers when found at gun shows in all calibers from .243 to .375. I believe that Nosler discontinued the old bullet due to the significantly increased production cost over the current method. I used the .375 Nosler to cull Asian buffalo in Australia on three different hunts and took over 60 buff using the 270 and 300 grain bullets. The terminal performance was most impressive allowing for my less than perfect shot placement. Those bullets you have are precious and should be used on game and not on paper.

Geoff

Only paper these bullets will see is sight-in targets. Thanks for the insight.

quote:

Originally posted by Stonecreek:
I've shot a bunch of those original Nosler's with the lathe-turned jackets. Great results, and although some people reported accuracy problems with them I found them among the most accurate in my rifles, mostly a .264 Win using 140's.

Regarding powders, I've never used Big Game, but its burning rate would seem to make it, if not optimal, at least a usable choice in a 6.5x55 using 125 gr bullets.

That’s kind of what I was thinking about Big Game but haven’t found any recipes to work with and I don’t feel confident stating without something to work up from. Thanks

I suspose I prefer the new Nosler partitions as the screw machine Nosler blew the front end off 99% of the time, but btw they killed very well indeed when that happened, but the scribes ran their heads about the mushroom bullets and its remained the bullet by which all are judged. Some of the best European bullets were designed to blow and fragment the forward protion of a bullet leaving the base to penetrate, still a damn good bullet, believe it or not..I have found both suitable, and doubt anyone could tell the difference if someone loaded their guns with both....

Well I have "modern" NP140s as well as the lathe turned ones in 125gr for a couple of my 6.5s. I finally found some IMR 4831 to load them with so I guess my son and I will have to see if there is any difference in performance this fall. I doubt there will be.

quote:

Originally posted by geoff:
I'm an old guy that likes old thing that work well. I have used the old Noslers made of brass tubing and the machined relief belt. They may not be the most accurate, but have not failed me on game, both big and small.

I buy the old Noslers when found at gun shows in all calibers from .243 to .375. I believe that Nosler discontinued the old bullet due to the significantly increased production cost over the current method. I used the .375 Nosler to cull Asian buffalo in Australia on three different hunts and took over 60 buff using the 270 and 300 grain bullets. The terminal performance was most impressive allowing for my less than perfect shot placement. Those bullets you have are precious and should be used on game and not on paper.

Geoff

Care to share your load data for the .375? I have a number of boxes of the 300 & 270 grain to try someday.

For the 375 H&H, I used 70 gr. of Reloader 15 with the 270 gr. Nosler. For the 300 gr., I used 67 gr. of Rel. 15.

I did not go through any accuracy load development exercise as it shot well enough in my Browning Safari and also due to the fact that my powder supply was modest.

Cornfield,
You will have to shoot somewhere around 200 to 500 deer to be close to correct on which is best. Going back over the years the proven bullet failures were
mostly varmint bullets or jacket failure on bigger calibers, all of which had no scientific proof, most of which was BS and poor shooting or failures that actually killed the animal..Ive seen many "failure claims" made in the field based on a bullet size entrance and a bullet size exit, the internal damage was massive btw...How did this happen, the front end came off after entrance and either the lead went out or the jacket went out...Happened with a lot of Noslers, but they killed just fine in the process..The wrong folks making the wrong judgement has always been a problem with bullets, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing...If the animal escaped folks blame the rifle or the bullet, never poor shooting, and the smart guide says "absolutely" ....

Fortunately todays bullets very very seldom fail due to the companies doing a good job, I have not seen a real bullet failure since the early 50s in my case, but the nay sayers are still out there...